Digital subscription and streaming revenues grew almost 29% last year to reach roughly $1.87 billion, surpassing sales of CDs ($1.85 billion) in the process, according to a report from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Streaming revenues comprised 27% of all industry revenues, up from 21% a year earlier. Physical shipment revenues (of which CDs represented 82%) accounted for 32% share and digital downloads a leading 37% share.
The report notes that paid streaming subscriptions grew by 26% year-over-year to reach 7.7 million.
Separated by $2 billion in revenues as recently as 2011, streaming revenues have closed the gap with digital download revenues and are now just $0.7 billion behind ($1.9 billion and $2.6 billion, respectively).
Overall, music industry revenues dropped by 0.5% to slightly below $7 billion.